L Paul Mann Photography

L. Paul Mann

Bio

I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, during a rare summer Hurricane there. My father died shortly after my birth and my mother moved to Florida. She was the first female missile scientist at Cape Canaveral and I grew up as a missile baby on the Space Coast of Florida. I developed an interest in journalism, travel, and history at an early age. Growing up near the beach in Central Florida, I also developed a great love for the ocean and became an avid surfer.

I moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, to study History and Anthropology, at the University of Hawaii, and also pursued my love of surfing. It was during my first winter in Hawaii, that I developed an addiction to Photography. The first roll of 35mm film that I ever shot yielded a photo that was published in Surfing Magazine. Shortly afterward, I met a young journalist from France, who took a selection of my original slides back to Paris. Hugo Verlomme used them in his oversized book entitled “The History of Surfing” The book included a large cover shot that I took of a surfer on a huge wave at Waimea Bay. From then on, I was hooked on the idea of professional photography. About the same time, I began writing and photographing for the University newspaper, covering my other passion, live music concerts. I was happy to begin working in a straight exchange for concert tickets. I graduated with a bachelors degree in History and did a semester of graduate work in Anthropology.

I then moved to Santa Barbara, Ca. to attend Brooks Institute of Photography. I fell in love with the area including, Rincon point, one of the 10 best waves in the world. I graduated with a double major in Motion Picture Production and Undersea Photo technology. I worked at a number of photo jobs, including a newspaper and photo lab. I then worked in the film industry mostly in Burbank for about a decade. I was a production assistant, swing-gang, extra, stand-in, bit actor, stuntman, set constructor, assistant cameraman, and director of photography. In the 1990s, I began working back in Santa Barbara, primarily in video production. I produced shows and commercials for local television and did corporate, event and many travel videos. I began working with a local concert production company, as well and did a number of jobs for them, including live video, and lighting board operator. I also continued to do professional photography during this time, including lots of travel, food, and sports stories. In addition, I started working on weekends as a nightclub VJ, mixing lights and live art video to the music.

By 1999, I had images appearing in over 500 publications, worldwide, including nearly every major Surfing magazine in the world. I also had over 50,000 original travel related images placed with stock image agencies across the globe during the film era. When digital photography took over the industry I went back to the local city college and reinvented myself as a digital photographer. I also began writing stories to go with my images. Since then, a majority of my work consists of concert and music reviews for local, regional, national, and international publications. But I also continue to write travel related articles, as well.